Attorneys' departures a problem throughout DA's office

The exodus of several seasoned attorneys chosen just a few months ago by Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan for an elite squad to handle his toughest criminal cases shows the difficulties of getting experienced prosecutors to stay at the office, even when salaries are competitive with other government agencies.

But an examination of all the assistant district attorney departures in 2007 alone demonstrates that the retention problems at the office are more widespread than in just the Violent Offender Unit, the specialized division Jordan charged in July with handling murder prosecutions.

Twenty-seven assistant district attorneys have resigned since January, according to records provided by Jordan's office. The number nearly matches the 29 prosecutors who quit in 2004, according to a report issued by a consulting firm that has advised both Jordan and the New Orleans Police Department. At the time of the 2005 report, heralded by Jordan as a blueprint for improving his office, entry-level salaries for assistant district attorneys stood at $30,000, compared with $45,000 early this year and the current $50,000.

Yet of the newest attorneys, such as those hired since Jan. 1 to handle the daily grind of drug, armed robbery and gun cases, a quarter left after just a few months on the job. Also among the departures are those prosecutors who have put in a few years, enough to successfully try more complicated cases, despite the series of pay increases.

In the past month, Michael Morales, a prosecutor with four years of experience, went to work for Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick. Karen Calderon, who was on staff for 16 months and a few weeks ago won a conviction in an attempted murder case, left for a job at the State Department in Washington. Robert Culpepper, one of two prosecutors in Jordan's public corruption unit, left this summer. Only one assistant district attorney remains to handle those cases.

Of the 27 attorneys who left this year, 14 had worked at the district attorney's office less than six months. Five more worked for Jordan less than a year. According to recent staff lists, typically about 55 prosecutors handle cases at Criminal District Court, including both screening and trial attorneys. This total does not count the juvenile division, supervisors or the appeals unit.

The Violent Offender Unit was first established in February, initially targeting people accused of committing rapes, armed robberies and attempted murders. After the collapse of two high-profile murder cases, Jordan shifted all of the murder cases to the Violent Offender Unit, touting the prosecutorial prowess of the veterans hired in early summer.

But the transition for the unit has not been smooth. Despite the $80,000 salary for the most experienced attorneys in the division, three prosecutors selected in early June were gone by the end of August. Another attorney hired in July also quit by the end of the month. A fifth prosecutor left a couple of weeks ago, although she returned to work in the trial division.

Lawyers from within the DA's office have been tapped to fill a couple positions at the Violent Offender Unit, while the unit's supervisor, Bobby Freeman, has said he is trying to recruit two or three additional prosecutors.

Trained, then gone

Supervisors acknowledge the turnover is frustrating, particularly when they lose new attorneys hired right out of school that they have spent months shaping into effective prosecutors.

"You see that people leave still in the midst of training, and you have to start all over again," said Ralph Brandt, the head of the trials division that handles most of the courtroom prosecuting for the office.

But Brandt added that he and other supervisors focus on finding the people who have prosecutorial work in their bones.

"You know who the people are who are prosecutors. And you can tell the people who are here because it is a job," Brandt said. "We try to groom the career prosecutors."

Brandt said one problem with some of the recent hires who left quickly was that they tried to commute to New Orleans from outside the area, an impractical routine given the job's time demands.

"When we are interviewing people we are going to really look at that as an issue now," he said.

New Orleans Councilman James Carter, who heads the Criminal Justice Committee, said the City Council is committed to helping Jordan retain his attorneys, noting it already found money to help increase the pay. Part of the pay increases during the past 18 months were financed by the city, while the state also increased financing for prosecutors.

But Carter said the council is waiting for a report from the National District Attorneys Association that is evaluating the performance of Jordan's office. It is expected in the next couple of months.

"That will affect the way we appropriate money in the future," Carter said, adding that he is looking to Jordan to find ways to keep his young prosecutors on staff. "I hope that Jordan, through his leadership, can continue to keep attorneys motivated."

Jordan was out of town and declined to comment for this story, an office spokesman said.

Same problems remain

Lawyers join up to prosecute cases in the trenches of Criminal District Court for an unparalleled crash course in criminal law.

After brief stints in juvenile court and magistrate court, where misdemeanor crimes are handled, new prosecutors hired for the trial division are sent to one of the 12 sections of courts to serve as junior assistant district attorneys. If they stay, they will likely be promoted to section senior assistant district attorney, sometimes after just a year or two in the courtroom. Other recent hires often work in the screening division, which reviews cases from the New Orleans Police Department and decides which are accepted or refused.

Many of the attorneys who left in the past couple of years said working as a trial prosecutor in New Orleans can be a heady experience, offering the opportunity to try many different kinds of cases, even during a short tour of duty.

Although trials tapered off after Hurricane Katrina, Brandt noted that most trials at Criminal District Court are back in full swing, climbing back to pre-storm numbers. Prosecutors were able to secure convictions in 13 of the 15 most recent jury trials, he said.

"That is with people who have under five years' experience going up against seasoned defense attorneys," he said.

A half-dozen former assistant district attorneys who left Jordan's office during the past couple of years, all of whom spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they often still practice law in south Louisiana, said the pay increases were needed and will help attract people to the office. But they cited a familiar complaint about life as a New Orleans prosecutor: The salary increases cannot make up for the frustration of working under constant pressure with almost no support staff to help with menial tasks.

Prosecutors say the amount of time they spend on necessary clerical chores eats up hours every day, a problem Jordan recently acknowledged when he asked the City Council for $135,000 to hire 15 more secretaries through the end of the year. Jordan made the request Sept. 12, but it remains unclear when or if help will arrive, as the City Council's Budget Committee probably will not even begin considering the request until the end of October.

Carter said the council likely will find some money to help the office get more clerical workers. In the meantime, Jordan is getting some help from the anti-crime group Silence is Violence, which is paying for an additional administrative assistant for the Violent Offender Unit.

If the council finds the $135,000 worthy of deliberation, it soon may be confronted with a more stunning figure from Jordan, who faces a $3.5 million legal judgment stemming from his decision shortly after taking office to fire dozens of white clerical workers and investigators. Jordan is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court the federal jury verdict that found the firings discriminatory, but if the nation's highest court declines to review the case, he will need to come up with the money, which includes rising interest and attorney fees.

Jordan's charges face other frustrations, ranging from temperamental judges to less-than-ideal working conditions. Two years after Katrina, the office is still in temporary quarters in a downtown office building that shuts off the air conditioning on the weekend. Boxes crowd the hallways. Prosecutors work on what they call "picnic tables" crowded into small offices.

Although the lack of air conditioning on the weekends has been a consistent complaint for prosecutors who almost always have to put in extra hours, Dalton Savwoir, a spokesman for the agency, said the office cannot do anything to provide a cooler work environment in the summer months.

"We have no control over the building's environment. We are just a tenant," he said.

Repairing the district attorney's South White Street office building next to the courthouse would undoubtedly boost morale at the office, said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. "It is a very emotionally taxing and mentally taxing job," he said. "To get people situated in a professional environment, where they have access to the courts, would make the entire office more efficient."

Savwoir said the office does not know when the old building will be repaired.

Prosecutors seek efficiency

Kevin Boshea, a criminal defense attorney who spent 10 years in the DA's office under Harry Connick, said leaders in Jordan's office need to start thinking creatively to solve these persistent problems, such as tapping college students to help with clerical work.

"There are thousands of criminal justice majors who would be dying to do an internship in the DA's office," Boshea said, adding that is how he got his start before law school.

But the key thing Boshea sees that needs to be done is to improve morale among the low-level troops.

"They have to create a motivation for them to stay, to give up families, to give up lives," Boshea said.

The importance of the work can work in the office's favor.

"Nothing I've done since meant more to me than being a prosecutor," he said. "If you loved the job, you can put up with the paperwork, the crabby judge, the problem witness."

Attorneys who have left expressed frustration that, despite the responsibilities they have to win cases at trial, they are not given much discretion when handling the bulk of their cases. For example, lawyers who rise through the ranks and become the lead attorneys in a section still lack the authority to offer defendants plea deals.

Supervisors must sign off on all deals, from violent crimes to the staple of Criminal District Court: the crack cocaine "throw down" case, when a defendant is accused of dropping drugs on the ground just as police approach in an attempt to avoid a possession charge.

Prosecutors instead spend a lot of time writing memos to their superiors about why they want to give a particular defendant a plea deal, often by offering to ignore previous convictions at sentencing. In some cases, attorneys must get the signature of two or three supervisors before they can act, a bureaucracy that takes days to navigate.

"It makes it difficult with defense attorneys. The person they are negotiating with is not the person with authority," one former prosecutor said. "It wastes a lot of people's time."

The issue was raised with Jordan this month at a Saturday meeting he held to hear the complaints of his young prosecutors, according to people at the meeting.

Brandt, who has been at the Orleans Parish district attorney's office for 18 years, said prosecutors have been making that complaint since he started. But it simply does not make sense to give front-line attorneys more discretion, Brandt said, adding they need the check-and-balance of a supervisor's approval.

Boshea agreed, saying that the policy, which has existed for as long as 30 years, is meant to prevent mistakes by junior prosecutors.

"It minimizes taking the easy way out on cases. A lot of cases perhaps should not be reduced," he said.

Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3316.